HP-led splinter group to proceed with real-time Java specNews & Analysis 11/30/1998 Post a commentThe latest salvo in the war between Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc. for control of real-time Java will be fired this week, when an HP-led coalition is expected to announce it has linked up with a standards body to formally oversee its effort to forge a real-time specification.

Intel, Cisco take stake in optical component pioneerNews & Analysis 11/30/1998 Post a commentIntel Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.) and Cisco Systems Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) have each invested about $10 million for minority stakes in Bookham Technology Ltd., a pioneer in the use of silicon for the fabrication of optical and opto-electronic components. Intel and Cisco are each thought to have received a little over 5 percent of Bookham in return for their investments.

Verisity adds spec-based verificationNews & Analysis 11/30/1998 Post a commentVerisity Design Inc. has added temporal language support to its Specman test-bench development software, embracing a new methodology it calls "spec-based verification." The company's Specman Elite brings some of the advantages of formal model checking into a familiar simulation environment.

National builds a scanner chipNews & Analysis 11/30/1998 Post a commentNational Semiconductor Corp.'s just released integrated scanner chip promises to lower the price and improve the quality of desktop color scanners. Though the 36-bit scanner-on-a-chip follows devices from Exar Corp., Burr-Brown and others into an increasingly competitive market, National's LM-9830 fulfills the company's long-term promise to use its analog components as building blocks for mixed-signal integration.

Analysis: Cable industry not set for 'super' set topNews & Analysis 11/30/1998 Post a commentWith standards still in flux, set-top and semiconductor makers in the United States and Europe are being left largely to their own devices in the drive to define a feature-rich, reliable "super set-top" box for next-generation TV. Chip and system vendors face a tough balancing act: They must design their platforms flexibly enough to accommodate evolving specifications for the U.S. cable industry while also ensuring that the same platform complies with individual set-top requirements from potenti

Equator debuts "software TV" engineNews & Analysis 11/30/1998 Post a commentEquator Technologies this week will take the wraps off a device that it calls a "software television." Fully programmable in C, the MAP1000 media processor-scheduled to roll out at the Western Show, here-formats digital video and graphics for display on high-resolution monitors. It also provides NTSC image enhancement and MPEG-4 decoding, and anticipates advanced video services such as videoconferencing and interactive gaming.